Manning V Al Jazeera

[phgreek]

So Here we go...

irresponsible reporting or backpedaling. My view is, there is NOTHING which should prevent Manning from beating the shit out of these people if it is all fabricated. He has more money than God, and more to be made due to his good name and standing over the next 30 years in endorsements. I seriously don't get people who think it is a bad thing to throw some punches here, and drop some law suits...unless of course, there is something there he is worried about. If not I'd see it as spending a few mil to make 30+ in future endorsements...Hammer them Peyton...PLEASE!!!!

Peyton Manning says he 'probably will' sue Al Jazeera

 

[ShawneeIrish]

I doubt very much Peyton sues. If there is no smoking gun he should be happy and let this story go away. He has not said whether his wife received HGH so while he may be completely innocent there may also be more to the story.

There's Something Strange About Peyton Manning's 'Furious' HGH Denial

 

[phgreek]

I doubt very much Peyton sues. If there is no smoking gun he should be happy and let this story go away. He has not said whether his wife received HGH so while he may be completely innocent there may also be more to the story.

There's Something Strange About Peyton Manning's 'Furious' HGH Denial

...agreed maybe more here. I can say that I have family members on HGH for things like head injuries, and that isn't something to be ashamed of. It is certainly plausible his wife is/was on HGH for a medical condition, which has nothing to do with him. That said if he is clean, I can't figure why he wouldn't hammer them...in this case, its not only principle, but I also see a financial incentive for Manning to leave no doubt. If he doesn't brutalize these people, I'll always have a question mark above his picture, but worse, will his endorsement income suffer?

 

[NDRock]

No idea if he took it or not but I do think HGH should be allowed for players rehabbing from an injury (with a Dr.'s approval).

 

[loomis41973]

Lay the hammer

 

[phgreek]

No idea if he took it or not but I do think HGH should be allowed for players rehabbing from an injury (with a Dr.'s approval).

totally agree...as long as it is disclosed, and the player is not playing, and it ceases before play resumes...I'm all for it.

 

[FearTheBeard]

I could see him deciding not to sue since from what ive heard defamation of character cases or whatever it falls under are hard to win. And honestly i dont think it matters, the nfl wasnt testing for it at the time and Manning was coming off a neck surgery at ~36 years old. Its not a big deal, not like hes been punping roids for the last 16 years

 

[GoldenDomer]

HGH is for pretenders. TRT or gtfo, Peyton.

 

[irishfan]

I don't think this story at the surface is a big deal at all. I am sure the number of players taking HGH pre-2014 was huge, and I would not blame him at all for taking it if he was told it would help with his surgery (no idea if it would).

I really only care about this story from a Pats/Brady and media/league point of view. Even with the guy recanting his accusation (Al Jazeera strongly stood by the story in their statement today), there are enough sketchy details out there where this story SHOULD be pursued more although it doesn't seem like anyone outside the Boston media seems to care much to do so. Obviously they are very different scenarios (and the false ESPN story really caused the initial sh!tstorm), but it's a bit annoying to me that Peyton fully gets the benefit of the doubt and is "innocent until proven guilty" over at ESPN while Brady got the opposite treatment. It's not entirely shocking since Peyton has been buddy-buddy with the media his whole career, but it's kind of annoying to see Mark Brunell cry on TV and call Brady a liar while Peyton gets a 1-on-1 interview on ESPN to defend his name less than 18 hours after the story breaks and then has every NFL analyst declare this a non-story.

When it comes to the league, they have no reason to launch an investigation as of now, but it's again annoying to see them blow what at this point is 10+ million on lawyer/Ted Wells fees to investigate Brady and then appeal their loss in court (all while ironically arguing that deflating=taking PEDs--hence the 4 game suspension for Brady), but this won't be pursued at all. Again, I know it's a much different scenario with the two accusations, but it's just all going to be interesting to see if anything else comes from this story, and how the media/league handle it going forward in comparison to how Deflategate was handled.

 

[irishfan]

Al Jazeera released video tonight showing they called to verify Sly's employment in 2011....yet this institute said he wasn't there in 2011. Which seems like a lie on their part. Not much of this story adds up. It makes no sense why Peyton would get HGH sent to his wife to protect his name, but these allegations do not tend to end well for athletes historically. Curious if anyone will keep poking at this story or not. Part of me thinks it isn't a big deal, but he did set passing records the last season prior to HGH testing and then fell off a cliff the next season. And the doctor is seemingly very sketchy. So, who knows? IMO it's one thing to use HGH to heal from a huge surgery but it changes if he used HGH to win the MVP. I can guarantee the league wants this story to die. No way they want anything to incriminate the Manning family in any way. I'd rather not see Peyton get ridiculed on his way to retirement since I like him, but I think there's enough here where Al Jazeera should keep digging.

Pretty sure they would have somehow cancelled football on Sunday if this story were about Brady.

 

[Irish#1]

I don't think this story at the surface is a big deal at all. I am sure the number of players taking HGH pre-2014 was huge, and I would not blame him at all for taking it if he was told it would help with his surgery (no idea if it would).

I really only care about this story from a Pats/Brady and media/league point of view. Even with the guy recanting his accusation (Al Jazeera strongly stood by the story in their statement today), there are enough sketchy details out there where this story SHOULD be pursued more although it doesn't seem like anyone outside the Boston media seems to care much to do so. Obviously they are very different scenarios (and the false ESPN story really caused the initial sh!tstorm), but it's a bit annoying to me that Peyton fully gets the benefit of the doubt and is "innocent until proven guilty" over at ESPN while Brady got the opposite treatment. It's not entirely shocking since Peyton has been buddy-buddy with the media his whole career, but it's kind of annoying to see Mark Brunell cry on TV and call Brady a liar while Peyton gets a 1-on-1 interview on ESPN to defend his name less than 18 hours after the story breaks and then has every NFL analyst declare this a non-story.

When it comes to the league, they have no reason to launch an investigation as of now, but it's again annoying to see them blow what at this point is 10+ million on lawyer/Ted Wells fees to investigate Brady and then appeal their loss in court (all while ironically arguing that deflating=taking PEDs--hence the 4 game suspension for Brady), but this won't be pursued at all. Again, I know it's a much different scenario with the two accusations, but it's just all going to be interesting to see if anything else comes from this story, and how the media/league handle it going forward in comparison to how Deflategate was handled.

Al Jazeera released video tonight showing they called to verify Sly's employment in 2011....yet this institute said he wasn't there in 2011. Which seems like a lie on their part. Not much of this story adds up. It makes no sense why Peyton would get HGH sent to his wife to protect his name, but these allegations do not tend to end well for athletes historically. Curious if anyone will keep poking at this story or not. Part of me thinks it isn't a big deal, but he did set passing records the last season prior to HGH testing and then fell off a cliff the next season. And the doctor is seemingly very sketchy. So, who knows? IMO it's one thing to use HGH to heal from a huge surgery but it changes if he used HGH to win the MVP. I can guarantee the league wants this story to die. No way they want anything to incriminate the Manning family in any way. I'd rather not see Peyton get ridiculed on his way to retirement since I like him, but I think there's enough here where Al Jazeera should keep digging.

Pretty sure they would have somehow cancelled football on Sunday if this story were about Brady.

Really?

 

[Domina Nostra]

Personally, I'm going to go ahead and discount AJ until they prove it.

As far as tarnishing his record if its true, for me personally:

(1) PM played a lot of years in the NFL with the equivalent of a dad bod. He never really relied too much on power or speed. If we found out Tebow or Newton were roiding, that would be a much bigger big deal. I could be persuaded that this perspective is not consistent.

(2) If he took HGH to heal, rather than to improve performance, that is not as big a deal anyway. It was Barry Bonds and Mark McGuire's late 30's growth spurts and 60-70 HR seasons that made their whole thing such a sham. If Bonds had hit 35 homers as a 40 year old, and we later found out that he was able to recover from a back injury because of HGH, I don't think I'd see him as a huge cheater.

 

[kmoose]

I doubt very much Peyton sues. If there is no smoking gun he should be happy and let this story go away. He has not said whether his wife received HGH so while he may be completely innocent there may also be more to the story.

There's Something Strange About Peyton Manning's 'Furious' HGH Denial

Not regarding your view, but in regards to the article:

I don't see anything strange about it. Manning clearly said that he never took HGH. He stated that he did not take HGH, he did not take anything that was prescribed for his wife, and that he was not going to talk about his wife's medical information.

What's so strange about that?

 

[Irish Insanity]

Al Jazeera released video tonight showing they called to verify Sly's employment in 2011....yet this institute said he wasn't there in 2011. Which seems like a lie on their part. Not much of this story adds up. It makes no sense why Peyton would get HGH sent to his wife to protect his name, but these allegations do not tend to end well for athletes historically. Curious if anyone will keep poking at this story or not. Part of me thinks it isn't a big deal, but he did set passing records the last season prior to HGH testing and then fell off a cliff the next season. And the doctor is seemingly very sketchy. So, who knows? IMO it's one thing to use HGH to heal from a huge surgery but it changes if he used HGH to win the MVP. I can guarantee the league wants this story to die. No way they want anything to incriminate the Manning family in any way. I'd rather not see Peyton get ridiculed on his way to retirement since I like him, but I think there's enough here where Al Jazeera should keep digging.

Pretty sure they would have somehow cancelled football on Sunday if this story were about Brady.

Dude, we all know Brady and the Pats are behind all this.

 

[connor_in]

Growth Hormone to Boost IVF Success Rates in Poor Responders | Advanced Fertility Center of Chicago Blog

This could be a reason a wife would get growth hormones. Also, this would go a long way in understanding why he would want to discuss his wife's medical situation. This is not something a lot of people want bandied about on a 24 hour news cycle. It is a very private, and if not successful, painful thing to go through.

 

[irishfan]

Really?

Really what? I don't think this (as it stands right now) or the Brady Deflategate story should be big media stories. But, I don't think there is anything wrong with wanting equal treatment for Brady/Manning by the media/league.

 

[Irish#1]

Really what? I don't think this (as it stands right now) or the Brady Deflategate story should be big media stories. But, I don't think there is anything wrong with wanting equal treatment for Brady/Manning by the media/league.

We rib each other all the time, but I don't see a need to bring Brady or the Pats into this. There is no connection here and you felt the need to vindicate Brady and the Pats by saying Manning gets a free pass. This isn't over. There's some reporter that's going to dig deeper to see if he can find anything else. He may find something or he may not.

 

[irishfan]

We rib each other all the time, but I don't see a need to bring Brady or the Pats into this. There is no connection here and you felt the need to vindicate Brady and the Pats by saying Manning gets a free pass. This isn't over. There's some reporter that's going to dig deeper to see if he can find anything else. He may find something or he may not.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Peyton Manning story has ripple effect in New England. Questions asked: Does NFL pursue as aggressively as it did Brady/PSI? National media?</p>— Mike Reiss (@MikeReiss) <a href="https://twitter.com/MikeReiss/status/681106788545118208">December 27, 2015</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Insider Buzz: <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NFL?src=hash">#NFL</a> Under Pressure to Treat Manning PED Claims Like Deflategate <a href="https://t.co/pZQbZYfj1J">https://t.co/pZQbZYfj1J</a> via <a href="https://twitter.com/BleacherReport">@bleacherreport</a></p>— Jason Cole (@JasonColeBR) <a href="https://twitter.com/JasonColeBR/status/681518028564070400">December 28, 2015</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

It's mainly just Pats fans, but there are people besides me who are bringing Brady into this story.

The situations are very different, and I know that. The league had much more of a responsibility to pursue Deflategate considering that was an in-league accusation and they had the ability to interview team employees and access some phone records. The league as of now can't pursue this Manning thing too far. They can't access his wife's medical records. They can really just talk to Peyton and that is it. The potentially deflated footballs also could have been connected to Belichick which made the story that much more juicy when it broke since he was a repeat offender. I'm just saying that now that we know more details behind Deflategate, it's annoying how Brady was almost instantly burned at the stake by the league, the media, and the public while this Manning story is almost already buried.

 

[yankeehater]

Personally, I'm going to go ahead and discount AJ until they prove it.

As far as tarnishing his record if its true, for me personally:

(1) PM played a lot of years in the NFL with the equivalent of a dad bod. He never really relied too much on power or speed. If we found out Tebow or Newton were roiding, that would be a much bigger big deal. I could be persuaded that this perspective is not consistent.

(2) If he took HGH to heal, rather than to improve performance, that is not as big a deal anyway. It was Barry Bonds and Mark McGuire's late 30's growth spurts and 60-70 HR seasons that made their whole thing such a sham. If Bonds had hit 35 homers as a 40 year old, and we later found out that he was able to recover from a back injury because of HGH, I don't think I'd see him as a huge cheater.

Isn't it still cheating large or small? Not to bring Brady back into this, but most thought the deflating of footballs was minor at most yet most still consider him a cheater.

 

[IrishLax]

Biggest question I have regarding this story's fallout: are Pats fans worse than Ohio State fans? I say no, but they've really been bringing their social media A game recently.

 

[Irishnuke]

Everything that happens in the NFL is about the Patriots. Doesn't matter how far removed from the story they are. It's about them. Just ask any Pats fan.

 

[Irish Insanity]

Everything that happens in LIFE is about the Patriots. Doesn't matter how far removed from the anythinh they are. It's about them. Just ask any Pats fan.

FIFY

 

[irishfan]

I don't get why people think Brady wouldn't be brought up with this. Peyton is accused of juicing less than a year after Brady was accused of cheating. They have been linked together their entire careers before this. Goodell even said that deflating a football is the equivalent of taking a PED when he handed down the 4-game suspension. Which is now turning out to be very ironic. Considering how wishy washy the charges were against Brady and how the charges (as of now) are weak against Peyton, there are obviously going to be comparisons made between the two and how the league/media treat them. Whether or not people want to admit it, there wasn't much "innocent until proven guilty" going on with Brady like there is now with Manning.

 

[Irish Insanity]

I don't get why people think Brady wouldn't be brought up with this. Peyton is accused of juicing less than a year after Brady was accused of cheating. They have been linked together their entire careers before this. Goodell even said that deflating a football is the equivalent of taking a PED when he handed down the 4-game suspension. Which is now turning out to be very ironic. Considering how wishy washy the charges were against Brady and how the charges (as of now) are weak against Peyton, there are obviously going to be comparisons made between the two and how the league/media treat them. Whether or not people want to admit it, there wasn't much "innocent until proven guilty" going on with Brady like there is now with Manning.

Probably because these accusations have nothing to do with Brady, the Pats, or deflation of footballs. There is literally no link between them the accusations. Like zero.

For the record:
I'm a Pats and Brady hater.
I think Brady may be the greatest of all time.
I'm not a Manning fan.
I think he's overrated.
I currently believe it's very possible he used the HGH.

 

[ShawneeIrish]

What I find interesting is the collective shrug over PED use in football but when there is PED use in baseball its the end of the world. I get baseball is more stat driven but its still weird. Barry Bonds was a HoF player before he even began PED use but will never sniff the HoF meanwhile in football people just pretend PED use is not rampant and then when someone gets caught nobody really cares.

 

[IrishLax]

I don't get why people think Brady wouldn't be brought up with this. Peyton is accused of juicing less than a year after Brady was accused of cheating. They have been linked together their entire careers before this. Goodell even said that deflating a football is the equivalent of taking a PED when he handed down the 4-game suspension. Which is now turning out to be very ironic. Considering how wishy washy the charges were against Brady and how the charges (as of now) are weak against Peyton, there are obviously going to be comparisons made between the two and how the league/media treat them. Whether or not people want to admit it, there wasn't much "innocent until proven guilty" going on with Brady like there is now with Manning.

Except that he isn't, which is why everyone thinks Pats fans asking for pitchforks and torches (when you DECRIED the pitchforks an torches for the Patriots) are:
1) Hypocritical.
2) Hilarious.
3) Sad.

There is not even a surface accusation right now that Manning did anything wrong. And that's what makes all the forced comparisons to Brady and Deflategate hilarious.

With Deflategate, you had reported organizational misconduct that was investigated and in turn lead to punishment. The flaws are with both the investigation and the subsequent punishment, but there is no logic to suggest that the NFL shouldn't have probed the reported misconduct. From the very beginning there was hard evidence (that later proved to have flaws) of an issue.

With this, you don't even have reported misconduct. Watch the below:
<div style="position:relative; padding-bottom:63%; padding-bottom:-webkit-calc(56.25% + 50px); padding-bottom:calc(56.25% + 50px); height: 0;"><iframe style="position:absolute; width: 100%; height: 100%;" src="http://www.today.com/offsite/al-jazeera-reporter-defends-peyton-manning-expose-clarifies-accusation-592846403558" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div>

There is literally no one willing to say Manning took HGH, much less any proof that he did. And the NFL is still going to investigate it. What more do you people want? And what on God's green earth does it have to do with Brady at all? Situations could not be more different.

Al Jazeera reporter: Documentary not alleging Peyton Manning used HGH - TODAY.com

 

[irishfan]

Except that he isn't, which is why everyone thinks Pats fans asking for pitchforks and torches (when you DECRIED the pitchforks an torches for the Patriots) are:
1) Hypocritical.
2) Hilarious.
3) Sad.

There is not even a surface accusation right now that Manning did anything wrong. And that's what makes all the forced comparisons to Brady and Deflategate hilarious.

With Deflategate, you had reported organizational misconduct that was investigated and in turn lead to punishment. The flaws are with both the investigation and the subsequent punishment, but there is no logic to suggest that the NFL shouldn't have probed the reported misconduct. From the very beginning there was hard evidence (that later proved to have flaws) of an issue.

With this, you don't even have reported misconduct. Watch the below:
<div style="position:relative; padding-bottom:63%; padding-bottom:-webkit-calc(56.25% + 50px); padding-bottom:calc(56.25% + 50px); height: 0;"><iframe style="position:absolute; width: 100%; height: 100%;" src="http://www.today.com/offsite/al-jazeera-reporter-defends-peyton-manning-expose-clarifies-accusation-592846403558" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div>

There is literally no one willing to say Manning took HGH, much less any proof that he did. And the NFL is still going to investigate it. What more do you people want? And what on God's green earth does it have to do with Brady at all? Situations could not be more different.

First off, you know as well as I do what Al Jazeera is doing. They can't prove Manning took anything years ago, so they're not going to make that claim and set themselves up for defamation. They're standing by their story that Manning's wife was shipped HGH at a time when Peyton was recovering from surgery. They all but accused him when they released the story and then doubled down when they called out Sly for recanting...and then tripled down when they released the video showing that this institute lied about Sly's employment. Personally, I don't care whether or not he took HGH but I think he did. No one has refuted that his wife received HGH and he hired a PR specialist. I don't think he'd do that if this was all confusion stemming from a treatment his wife had.

I said above earlier that they are very different situations. But I think it is naive to think that there aren't people out there who are waiting to see how seriously the league will pursue this by comparison to Brady. HGH/Deflategate are by no means related, but when the Commissioner says that deflating a football (let's not even get into the more probable than not proof) is the equivalent of taking a PED, I think it naturally sparks an interest to see how seriously the league will try and go after Manning for an actual PED allegation. Peter King is as big of a league patsy as anyone in the media, and he has repeatedly said that the league "railroaded" Brady in their investigation. Like you said, the investigation turned into more of a fiasco as it went on, so it's not like the league was gunning for Brady from the start of the Deflategate story, but in the end they went out of their way to vilify him. They actually are still doing so in court, as they changed their story from "more probable than not" that Brady was generally aware to Brady organizing the whole deflate scheme. It's hard to justify all of that and then see this story just disappear with Peyton.

I am not the only one thinking this:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Insider Buzz: <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NFL?src=hash">#NFL</a> Under Pressure to Treat Manning PED Claims Like Deflategate <a href="https://t.co/pZQbZYfj1J">https://t.co/pZQbZYfj1J</a> via <a href="https://twitter.com/BleacherReport">@bleacherreport</a></p>— Jason Cole (@JasonColeBR) <a href="https://twitter.com/JasonColeBR/status/681518028564070400">December 28, 2015</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[IrishLax]

First off, you know as well as I do what Al Jazeera is doing. They can't prove Manning took anything years ago, so they're not going to make that claim and set themselves up for defamation. They're standing by their story that Manning's wife was shipped HGH at a time when Peyton was recovering from surgery. They all but accused him when they released the story and then doubled down when they called out Sly for recanting...and then tripled down when they released the video showing that this institute lied about Sly's employment.

You know what's missing from that? Any proof or even direct allegation that Manning took HGH. Which is why the situations could not be more different, and why the "pressure" Cole refers to is a crock and effectively non-existent (except for Pats fans and their organization whining). And why you're not seeing wall to wall coverage on ESPN. And why this story is going nowhere... pending the NFL investigation.

 

[Irish#1]

I believe the institute denied the guy being employed there is because he served as an intern, thus he wasn't an employee.

 

[philipm31]

Really what? I don't think this (as it stands right now) or the Brady Deflategate story should be big media stories. But, I don't think there is anything wrong with wanting equal treatment for Brady/Manning by the media/league.

Was this the first time that the Pats had been suspected to be cutting corners or flouting the law? No.

Was Deflategate a non-story with no real proof? Yes.

Was Spygate a much bigger scandal with literally NOTHING done by the NFL and so Deflategate was the league's make-up call since Goodell did not want to do anything to his buddy and "owner" Kraft back in 2007? Yes.

So, do not get it twisted here. The Pats have been getting far more generous treatment by the media than they deserve for OVER a decade...and honestly, they still do.

Secondly, if this is about Ashley getting HGH to help them have another child, then hell yeah, I could see Manning being that angry.